without regard to its Author. The religious man obeys the same law, but regards it as the will of God. One rests in the law, the other only in its Author.[1]
Now in all forms of Religion there must be a common
element which is the same thing in each man; not a similar
thing, but just the same thing, different only in
degree, not in kind, and in its direction towards one or many
objects, in both of which particulars it is influenced in
some measure by external circumstances. Then since men
exist under most various conditions, and in widely different
degrees of civilization, it is plain that the religious
consciousness must appear under various forms, accompanied
with various doctrines, as to the number and nature of its
Objects, the Deities; with various rites, forms, and
ceremonies, as it means to appease, propitiate, and serve these
Objects; with various organizations, designed to accomplish
the purposes which it is supposed to demand; and,
in short, with apparently various and even opposite effects
upon life and character. As all men are at bottom the
same, but as no two nations or ages are exactly alike in
character, circumstances, or development, so, therefore,
though the religious element be the same in all, we must
expect to find that its manifestations are never exactly
alike in any two ages or nations, though they give the
same name to their form of worship. If we look still
more minutely, we see that no two men are exactly alike
in character, circumstances, and development, and therefore
that no two men can exhibit their Religion in just the
same way, though they kneel at the same altar, and
pronounce the same creed. From the difference between men,
it follows that there must be as many different subjective
conceptions of God, and forms of Religion, as there are
men and women who think about God, and apply their
thoughts and feelings to life. Hence, though the religious
faculty be always the same in all, the Doctrines of
Religion, or theology; the Forms of Religion, or mode of
worship; and the Practice of Religion, which is Morality,
cannot be the same thing in any two men, though one
mother bore them, and they were educated in the same
way. The conception we form of God; our notion about
- ↑ See Mr Parker's Ten Sermons, Sermons I. to V.
